bell hooks: Writing Beyond Race

When: Fri., Aug. 31, 2 p.m. 2012

The legendary scholar bell hooks is coming to Charleston to challenge women to discover where personal identity and political ideals intersect. If you’re not already familiar with the scholar, The Atlantic has called hooks one of the United States’ leading public intellectuals, while Utne Reader lists her as one of “100 Visionaries Who Could Change Your Life.” The author of more than 30 books, she has explored in-depth just about everything you were told not to bring up at the dinner table, including race, class, gender, sexuality, and religion. Drawing on the feminist movement’s use of identity politics, hooks examines these topics to understand what she calls “a more transcendent sense of self and identity.” Dr. Alison Piepmeier, director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the College of Charleston and City Paper columnist (see p. 12), comments on the feminist wonderlady’s visit: “I think I’ve quoted her in almost everything I’ve had published. Everyone who attends her talk will walk away with a question she has raised that is meaningful to them."